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A task force subcommittee has chosen 22 locations across West Virginia to hold public hearings on an insurance program for West Virginia teachers and other public employees.

A public outreach subcommittee of the Public Employees Insurance Agency task force met Thursday in Charleston. It chose the communities for the meetings later this spring, and the staff of the governor's office would schedule dates and meeting places.

Candidates in West Virginia’s May 8 primary are hoping for the chance to earn their party’s nominations for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House or the Legislature. Early voting in West Virginia runs from April 25 through May 5.

A Cornell University researcher will be at West Virginia University for a seminar on the effects of climate change on food supplies.

WVU says Michael Hoffmann will lead the discussion Tuesday on topics including the basics of climate change, how changing climate affects the food supply and research that leads to new solutions and practices.

Attorneys for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship are seeking to erase his misdemeanor conviction related to the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in four decades. A former lead prosecutor called it a desperate act.

A motion filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston claims federal prosecutors withheld information that would have assisted in Blankenship's defense at his lengthy 2015 trial. It said the government produced reports and other information after the trial's completion.

Convicted former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship claims documents that would have assisted his defense weren't made available to his attorneys before his trial and he's asking a federal court to vacate his misdemeanor conviction.

Blankenship made the claim in a news release through his U.S. Senate campaign to announce a planned motion to vacate the conviction. No motion was listed on a federal court website Tuesday night.

Drugmakers would be required to identify the legitimate need for controlled substances to justify their production under a proposed rule intended to rein in the diversion of drugs for illicit purposes.

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced the proposed rule change Tuesday.

Cabell County is leading West Virginia in the number of fatal overdoses for the second year in a row.

Citing state data, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports 909 people died of drug overdoses in West Virginia in 2017, an increase from the previous record of 887, set in 2016. Overdose deaths seemed to slow during late 2017, though the state Health Statistics Center says that could be due to reporting delays.

Oklahoma's two largest school districts were closed Thursday for the ninth consecutive day because of a teacher strike. Oklahoma’s strike now matches the length of a walkout in West Virginia earlier this year. The strike in West Virginia started a rebellion of teachers in some Republican-led states.

On a Baltimore street corner, public health workers hand out a life-saving overdose antidote to residents painfully familiar with the ravages of America’s opioid epidemic. But the training wraps up quickly; all the naloxone inhalers are claimed within 20 minutes.

As teachers in multiple states protest for better pay, a new study warns that the fast-growing South region must invest more in public schools and higher education to ensure its homegrown talent shares in its economic prosperity.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia Bill Powell announced the task force's creation in a news release Friday. The Health Care Crimes Task Force will investigate prosecute illegal activities like fraud and opioid diversion.